Historical Writings

B.C. (Before Christ)

This seven volume history lession covers the events recorded in the Old Testament from creation to the time just before the captivity. Edersheim provides an exhaustive look into the events and people that shaped the history of Israel.

In this one volume work, Edersheim sketches Jewish life and culture as it was in the time of the Old and New Testament. Touching on subjects including death, child rearing and worship of the synagogue; No area of the Jewish culture is left unexposed.

The "Against Apion" or "Contra Apionem" presents a well-written systematic apology for Judaism in reply to various attacks, especially in the literary world. The usual title "Contra Apionem" is misleading, since only a part of the work is occupied with the polemic against Apion.

The "Antiquities of the Jews" ("Jewish Archeology") is a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from the beginnings of Biblical history to the outbreak of the war in 66 A.D., in twenty books, after the model of the Romaike archaiologia of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. It was completed in the thirteenth year of Domitian, 93-94 A.D. For the Biblical period (books 1 and 11) Josephus draws almost exclusively from the Bible in the Septuagint version, but he modifies the Biblical story and supplements it by legends, following current traditions.

The "History of the Jewish War," in seven books, is his earliest and most carefully written work. The first and second books gave a survey of Jewish history from the time of the Maccabees to the outbreak of the insurrection against the Romans. The rest of the work is a detailed account of the war from the beginning in 66 to the complete suppression in 73. It was written late in the reign of Vespasian (69 to 79 AD). It was presented to Vespasian, Titus, and Agrippa II., and the author received commendation for the accuracy of his account.